UNITY OF EMPIRE FARMING

Shannon News, 21 September 1928, Page 1

UNITY OF EMPIRE FARMING

Lessons of the British Royal Show The need for organising the whole of the industries of the Empire a* a single unit jias been often and rightly emphasised. Agriculture is the oldest and greatest industry of all, yet little attention has hitherto been paid to the need for organising Empire faming as a single unit. Some time ago, a prominent statesman, a man himself skilled in practical farming, made the remarkable prophecy that the future would see us regarding British fanning not as an isolated event, but as part of the vast body of Empire farming as a whole. Would it be too sanguine to regard this year’s visit to Britain of a group of farmers from ail parts of the Empire as a first; tentative step towards a realisation or that mighty prophecy ? These Empire farmers saw much interest them and not a little to Instruct them during their visit. They saw farms, research stations, docks, factories and in fact everything directly or indirectly concerned with' their indus-t-ray. Perhaps their most remarkable experience, however, was the visit to the Royal Agricultural Show—the premier Show in Britain and perhaps throughout the world. It afforded them the opportunity of seeing for themselves how British manufacturers cater for the farming industry in all its branches—" in all climes.

The implement yard was particularly interesting as well as instructive, for it reflected the great skill and ingenuity of British engineers. Progress was apparent on all sides; here it was represented by improvements on old types of machinery, thereby entirely new inventions. One exhibit of special note was a poultry plucking machine. By means of this ingenious device a fowl can be cleanly plucked and plumage gathered together in less than a minute. This labour-saving marvel ought to find a place on all large-scale poultry farms, . Portable Bails.

Another notable invention was a portable shed or "bail" which had been used for demonstrating the possibility of milking cows by machinery in the open fields. This shelter was fitted with many automatic labour-saving devices, one of which was for feeding concentrates to those coats giving a superior yield. It is claimed that by this method one man and a boy can quite easily manage a herd of seventy cows. The group of Empire farmers also saw powerful steam and petrol tractors together Avith their complementary array of ploughs, cultivators and suwsoilers destined to break in and put to the service of mankind those AA'ide stretches of fertile lands at present practically uncultivated. Another storehouse of profitable lessons on the need for scientific methods in farming Avas the stand of the world’s Dairy Congress. Here could be seer, machines and gadgets useful and pro fitable to all people occupied in the milk trade. A novelty wan a papier macho tube for the retail distribution of milk. One end of it is : closed by . means of a metallic compress Avhih the other is temporarily covered with waxed seals. Considering that at the present time the British Empire and the world as a whole ,is concentrating on solving the problem of producing great quantities of pure milk at low cost, the dairy pavilion was probably one of the most attractive exhibits. less instructive than the machinery display was the shoAv of seeds, feeStUg stuffs and fertilisers. British botanists and chemists were equally as eager as the engineers to demonstrate to farmers how much the prosperity of the agricultural industry depended on a free and full co-partnership with science.